Instrumenta
II. Instrumenta
sive
Acta
1Sacred law (or laws?), of about 500 b.c. or earlier, inscribed on the four faces of a four-sided and tapering block of tufa of which the top is broken off. Found between the Forum and the comitium at Rome under a black marble pavement. The lines of the inscription, of which only the lower part is preserved, run vertical to the base, the letters lying on their sides when the pillar is upright. Lines 1, 3, 5, 7, 11, 12, 14 read from right to left, that is, from below upwards on the pillar; 2, 4, 6, 10, 13, 15, from left to right, that is, from above downwards; 8, 9, 16 are as
1← 1 Quoi hoi . . . → 2 sakros es ← 3 ed Sora[no ———— → 4 . . . . ia . . . . ias ← 5 rece ⁝ic. . . . → 6 . . . [d]evam ← 7 quos ⁝r. . . . ———— ← 8 . . . m⁝kalato
- 1 vide C.I.L. I, 2, 1
Law and Other Documents
II. Inscriptions
forming
Deeds
or ‘Documents,’ written on durable material, for public or private information. See Introduction, pp. xii–xiv.
1it were upside down; 8 reads from right to left = from above downwards; 9 and 16 from left to right—from below upwards; 16, which ends the inscription, is in smaller letters on an edge of the stone between the first and fourth faces. Some of the words seem to be separated by vertically arranged points, generally three, but the separation is perhaps not accurate and is apparently not complete; until the 5th line none at all are certain, and there are other punctures not made by the writer. I give the inscription in full and translate what appears to be intelligible.
1 He who (violates) this . . .
2–3 that he be solemnly forfeited to Soranus.
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4 — ⋅ —
5 to the King
6 goddess (or divine)
7 whom (or which)
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8 summoner
9 soothsayer?
10 draught-cattle
11 let him take
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